Publications

Issue 34

Local News

The Jewish Music and Cultural Festival is celebrating its bar mitzvah year. The 13th annual festival will be held on Sunday, September 9, from noon-6 pm, on the campus of the Jewish Community Center of Syracuse, 5655 Thompson Rd., DeWitt, NY. There is no cost to attend.

National News

WASHINGTON (JTA) – How much noise does Israel’s leadership have to make to get the Obama administration to say what it wants to hear about Iran? It’s a question now preoccupying Israel, along with its corollary: How much noise is too much and risks precipitating a crisis between Jerusalem and its closest ally?

International News

PRETORIA, South Africa (JTA) – Filmmaker Laurence Gavron is on a journey to document lost Jewish tribes in Africa. The French-born Gavron, who has made Senegal her home since 1989, says she was immediately taken by the project, which she says combines her passion for Africa with the mystery of rediscovering Judaism.

Features

"I started singing at the age of five. My aunt (Helen – Honey – Balin) taught me all the songs. I sang ‘Brother, Can you Spare a Dime,’ and ‘I Only Have Eyes for You,’" recalled Florence (Flo) Balin. "Even in first grade I loved to perform." When she was 7, she sang over the radio in a children’s program for WNBF, the only radio station in Binghamton at the time. It was located in the Arlington Hotel basement, which was on Chenango and Lewis streets. Every week throughout the school year, her aunt picked her up from school early and they walked to the radio studio.

What happens when the demands of Jewish law and the desires of the human heart clash? In her novel "I Am Forbidden" (Hogarth), Anouk Markovits explores how the answer to this question can echo through several generations. Markovits, who grew up in a Satmar household in France, focuses on the world of haredi Jews, for whom almost every decision is based on Jewish law and ritual. Her work offers readers an opportunity to debate Jewish tradition and faith as its characters search for their place in the world.

Opinion

I’m getting tired of all the photos posted on my Facebook page that tell me to "click if you remember this..." or "click if you know what this is...." They always features something we don’t use anymore or television stars who died decades ago. The first 25 times or so it was fun. Then it became just an almost daily reminder that, yes, I am getting old.

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